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Sports park on Heizel Plateau in Brussels

Together with Zwarts & Jansma Architects and the landscape architects of OMGEVING and ARA, Witteveen+Bos has won the design competition for a new sports park on the Heizel Plateau in Brussels. The project brief calls for the restructuring of existing sports facilities and the creation of new functions, such as the conversion of a sports centre and the realisation of a club building and an underground car park. The sports park is located near the Atomium on the former grounds of the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair (Expo 58). The winning design is landscape-based and organic, and offers a marked contrast with the straight lines currently dominating the surroundings.

Particular attention has been devoted to making intelligent use of the significant differences in elevation. In addition to the public area, there will be an athletics track, a special course for runners and joggers, sports fields, and a public water playground. The sports buildings will have glass facades that will make them stand out in the surroundings. The underground car park has a split-level floor that slopes downward from the entrance, and a park will be created on its roof. John Ros, project leader for Witteveen+Bos: ‘We really enjoyed working together with a wonderful team to create the prize-winning design. We focused mainly on the structural and installation engineering design of the buildings and the underground car park. The preliminary design phase has now been completed. We will continue working to ensure the success of this project, right up to the realisation phase.’